Week 14 Theme 2

He was okay with not starting the first game for a couple of reasons. Starting is preferred by all baseball players, in the field and at the plate, but there are four second bests to starting. One is to be a pure pitcher. If you are a pure pitcher, then it generally means you can't play other positions very well, and you can not hit very well.

There was one player on the team that was a pure pitcher. He could not play outfield, was the best pitcher on the team, could play third base pretty well and could hit okay but not with enough power to warrant playing third much. But he was always secure in the knowledge that pitching the first game was always his.

Pinch hitting is the second way. A pinch hitter generally cannot field very well, but can hit with power or with really excellent contact. A few players were pinch hitters. But they didn't have the ability to hit that really made them get used except as a way to just get them into the game.

The tenth fielder is the third way. The tenth fielder often is either someone who can field but can't hit, or can hit but can't field. The coach will prefer one over the other, and start one. But if they are around even, then the one not starting should see some action. Or, if he is the tenth man with the pure pitcher in, as one player was last year, then that means he starts all games the pure pitcher doesn't start pitching.

Pinch running is the last one. As a pinch runner, he has to be fast and smart. He has to be able to take good leads as well, and listen to the basecoach. Pinch runners are generally used in situations when they are greatly needed, to steal a base, or go first to third, or break up a double play. Just to keep the game going longer.

And all four of these are better ways to be sitting on the bench than not. And being two of these, he was content with not starting.

Week 14 Theme I

The coach announced the starting outfielders. To keep the good hitters in, he was starting the first baseman and catcher in left and right field. The other outfielders felt a collective feeling of disappointment that they were not starting.

"This will be interesting," the catcher said, "I've never played outfield."

***

The ball was hit into left field. "Come on, get it!" an oufielder said from the dugout. "Get that!" the coach said.

Being quite slow, the first baseman took the ball on the bounce, and utilized his queer slightly sidearm throw into the infield, holding them to two runs.

***

The ball was lined into right. The catcher in right field moved in, then staggered back as it sailed way over his head. The runners ran around the ball. An outfielder in the dugout dropped a baseball into the corner in annoyance. He knew that it could have been him out there. There is nothing more annoying then watching someone else messing up your position.

***

The coach finally resigned himself to losing this game, and entirely changed outfields, putting three subs in. And the subs made more good plays in the outfield than the starters had.

Week 15 Theme

Here in 162sville we try to avoid the Civil War, slaves, rape, incest, racism, suicide, and all the rest.

You want your books to have rounded corners, leave them near a poodle puppy.

With more attention span than a goldfish

It's totally whack... tossing the minis into a blender... calculated disorganization... tossing chronology to the winds... I find it... charming.

*I have dog conversations all the time

Particularly droll

the cleats-rigamarole

Amusing to see you tapdance

*My dogs are considerably more articulate.

Though I'd be willing to learn (hint....)

So dehydrated and esurient

Holy hannah! That is very weird! Very very!

*My dogs say things like:

So droll, so impervious to possible teacher's negativity.

Glad that my wit was nearly as funny as an old fat guy sneezing....

'Droll' is the key word--very nice line in deadpan humor.

* “Give me a treat, you asshole!”

The monumental and glorious silliness

I'm going to comment here on the whole triptych.

Just a second non-comment comment to boot blogger into saying '2 comments' instead of '0 comments'

* “I'm not going out in that snow, no way!”

Victorian writers were besotted with punctuation,

Wellllllll, that's a bit of a stretch

What's English without the occasional safe house, courier cut out, secret cell, disinformation, and counter-espionage op?

* “Leave me the fuck alone!”

Once had a robot replace me as a heat-treater in a factory job

Do you know what a 'macguffin' is?

Do its job without interference from ancillary material.

Isearch handwritten on spiral notebook paper nightmare

* “That's mine!”

Who do you think the bosses came whining to when Big Robey went on a snooze cruise?

Between the proctor's fussiness and the reality that only you seemed aware of.

Stories don't necessarily come from dramatic, near death experiences.

*(They always punctuate with exclamation points.)

Your attitude and cinnamon gum

The players hijinx (silly old word, sorry)

I hope you don't think that's rude.

* “Good time for a walk!”

"Tomorrow I will give you a story titled 'The Ashtray.'"

In a course like this is set free on the playground of letters. Go climb on the monkey bars!

Find someplace that is not McDonaldized

* “WHO'S THAT ON OUR ROAD!!!!”

Shhh, don't tell anyone I said this

That's okey-doke.

Not to keep beating this dead horse...

* “My dog, that smells doog, boss!”

I remember Mysterious Talky Guy Part I!

Writing from the stretch, so to speak, instead of with a full windup?

I worked a whole summer at summer camp without swearing once!

* “Mmmmm, horse shit, yum yum!”

Reconstruction of your hogitude is very convincingly porcine.

Hand the candidate a glove, and say "Think fast."

A finely articulated skeleton

English teachers! They can't count!'

I don't get paid to talk about dogs, but I do get paid to talk about writing, which I love.

Week 13 Theme

All books are different.

Books can range from just about palm sized to huge ones. Many authors will stick to the formula to get their books read. That is just about maybe 8 or 9 inches tall for a hardcover. Paperback books are usually smaller, with smaller font. The font is usually about ten to twelve, unless it is a large print book.

Large print books are very annoying to me. It is impossible to adjust my eyes to them. That is why I never read them. But there are people with declining eyesight who prefer them.

I have read tiny books, of maybe 8 font or so. I can adjust my eyes to that better. I read one book once that had red font. I actually got used to it, and took a little bit to readjust to black.

But the one thing I think that authors should change for their books, is to have round corners.

Week 13 Prompt III

63. To see a world in a grain of sand. and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour. -William Blake

Most people think of dirt as either something to walk on, something to plant in, or something disgusting.

I think of it as something to slide on.

Baseball requires dirt. This is proven by the fact that even baseballs with entirely grass infields still have dirt at the bases. Different types of dirt can really affect the game. Hard packed dirt can make ground balls skip really hard. Even good dirt can have imperfections, once I was moving over to backhand a flat ground ball that had not bounced once, and it ricocheted off a rock and hit me in the face.

For sliding, dirt is huge. Dirt that is too rocky can injure the slider, even if they slide correctly to avoid scrapes. I have encountered dirt that is really bad sliding dirt. I tried a pop-up slide into second once and the dirt was so sticky, though not wet at all, that I ended up coming up couple feet short of the base.

It's hard to dive back into a base with sticky dirt as well.

More higher level fields have entirely grass infields except for the bases, eliminating the dirt aspect for the fielders. If the grass were perfectly flat, then it would probably assist the fielders in terms of fielding the ball, though the ball would bounce higher, and be faster, increasing the double play rate greatly.

I generally hold a disliking towards dirt, but baseball dirt is different. I see a world in baseball dirt.

Week 13 Prompt II

62. For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

A player on my college baseball team sat on the dugout floor pulling the spikes off his cleats.

"Putting them on?" another player asked.

"Taking them off," he corrected, "I'm missing two, they overbalance me."

Cleats are important. Otherwise baseball players wouldn't use them. I have experienced not wearing cleats, and have felt like the outfield was a slip and slide.

There also is a huge difference between metal and plastic cleats. Plastic cleats are okay on dirt, but on the grass, they don't dig in at all. Metal cleats dig in, to help you make sharp cuts.

Other sports use them, such as golf, or soccer, or ice climbing. And a good pair of shoes are important for basketball, or tennis, or life.

People who don't wear good shoes can get sore feet, back, knees, or other things.

There are people who have tons of shoes, as a fashion statement or whatever. Shoes can affect a lot of people. And a horse's shoe can save a kingdom.

Week 13 Prompt I

68. I think, therefore I am.
If you think about it, thinking is an interesting concept. If you think about thinking, then you find out that it's hard to think when you're thinking about it. And when you're not thinking about thinking, you are generally dreaming.

And dreaming is an interesting concept. No one knows why we dream, though it takes our thought patterns and fires randomly. Why is unknown. There are many theories though.

One of which is that we dream to prepare for future events. Basically, that if we experience a tramautic event, then we will be better prepared for it next time. There are also theories that purport that dreaming does nothing. Also that dreaming determines which connections in the brain are necessary and which can be removed.

I dream , and my dreams have changed drastically over the years.

I had dreams when I was four or so of things such as the purple creature from the McDonald's commercials lurking out in our woods, then going in to eat our chickens.

Or that I went into our backyard, and encountered a tiger. Which promptly ate me, starting with my right palm.

Or when I saw a commercial with a lobster clawing someone's ear, and then I dreamed of a lobster sitting on a table in our living room, then levitating and flying towards me.

Now, none of these such dreams occur, namely, I believe, because I don't need them. I'm not likely to have to run away from a tiger. If I did, then it would be helpful to have dreamed of it first, because next time I would run away, instead of standing there, and letting it eat me.

But now I dream of important things, such as baseball and classes, which seems to me to be preparing me for if things that might actually happen to me do happen, unlike tiger attacks.

Week 12 Prompt III

59. The door slammed, and I never looked back.

I arrived five minutes before the 5:15 time we were supposed to be there. I joined a group of players talking before we went to collect the gear. I would not have thought it was the right bus except that the whole rest of the team were there. The bus said "Bar Harbor Tour Bus" right on it. The coach had said we would have a coach bus, and this didn't look like one.

We entered the bus, and took places. It was a pretty nice bus, with soft cushions and everything, though the floor rose up for some reason on every other seat, so that only one person could sit there. We had few enough players that one player sat at each seat, with plenty of seats to spare.

We were waiting on two players, so we sat waiting. We were supposed to leave at 7:30. The bus driver was elderly, and he sat reading the comics section of the newspaper.

"Hey!" one player called, "Mr. Bus Driver?"

"He's busy," another player teased, "Can't you see he's reading the funnies?"

"What is it?" the bus driver asked, having determined that we were talking about him.

"Can you push this thing?" the player asked.

"If  it says I can go 80, I'll go 80," he said.


That was a good taste of what kind of a driver we had. An excellent one. We shot down the road. Once, we hit a construction zone of one lane, and a cone had blown over into the middle of the remaining lane. Without slowing down, the driver breezed around it.


We got closer, and one of the players kept saying how he lived right here. We turn, and he calls out:

"Hey! That's the wrong way! You should have gone right there, not left!"

"Why didn't you say something!?" the coach yelled back.

"I thought you knew where you were going!"

We drove along a ways, then came to an intersection.

"No, don't-" the player started and stopped, as we turned left.

"This will get us there," the coach said, "Or we'll turn around."

"Okay," the player said skeptically, "But this is a one way street to the ocean here."

We drove along the narrow road, with barely room for us, if another car had tried to go by us they probably would have had to pull over. There was one spot with a car parked on either side of the road opposite from each other.

The bus shot through with about an inch to spare on either side.

"That's some skilled driving right there," a player said.

We drove down and pulled to a stop at the end of the road, with the beach beyond.

"I told you it was a one way street," our player said.

After that, he gave directions.

Week 12 Theme

Ceremonial first pitches in baseball games are annoying.

The tradition was started when President Taft did it 1910. Considering that he was 300 pounds, presumably it wouldn't have been a very good pitch. But since Taft, every president has thrown out at least one opening pitch, no matter how badly they do it. Clinton was the first president to get the ball successfully to the plate.

Bush had the best ceremonial first pitch ever by a president with his pitch, which was a strike right down the middle. Though it wasn't thrown all that hard, it was noted because it was just after 9-11 and he was wearing a bulletproof vest while doing it, and it had a symbolic strength symbol to the country, to kick off the World Series.

I was hoping that meant a new tradition of presidents at least able to throw strikes, but then Obama comes in, and tries to throw a pitch. That was a disaster. He should stick to basketball.

Of course, all sorts of famous people try to, namely singers. And they always are horrific. Like Justin Bieber. Or probably the worst opening pitch ever, Mariah Carey.

Some bad first pitches are enjoyable, such as the animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex.

But honestly, why do baseball teams keep having famous people with horrendous baseball skills throwing out the first pitch? It makes a mockery of the game!

Sometimes it is a former player, but Randy Johnson throwing out the opening pitch just seems a little bit like cheating.

Well, there is nothing we can do about the musicians, but one thing is certain, every president will at some point throw out an opening pitch. They've been doing it for 100 years. So, we need to start voting for presidential candidates who can throw a baseball.

At presidential debates, we need to start asking them: "Have you ever played baseball?" And we can't just go on whether they are athletic or not, just look at Obama. Baseball is America's sport, and we need America's president to be able to represent America's sport well. We need to make this an issue so that we get heard, so that we don't get any more lousy presidential pitches.

At debates, the moderator should hand the candidate a glove, and say "Think fast."

If they can't at least look like a little leaguer, then they are not fit to serve.

It doesn't seem like Mitt Romney is very athletic, let alone can throw a baseball. But I say give him a chance, maybe he can make some changes around Washington. Like being able to throw a strike or two.

Week 11 Theme Retry

We arrived at the baseball field. There was no outfield fence. Left field was backed by bracken and woods. Center field merged into a hill, which fell down into a soccer field. If it was hit there, keep running. Right field terminated in a hill rising up about twenty feet in fair ground, then several large trees and a house, then a road right behind it.

Directly behind the batter was the white school. I had difficulty in right field seeing the ball off the bat.

***

We arrived at the baseball field. This one at least had an outfield fence, even though it was one of those collapsible mesh ones, that if you touched it it would fall over. The fence also served as the fence for the softball field, and behind that, was the beach, then the ocean.

There was no out of play fence along the side, just a line which at one point went right through a huge tree. So you could rob a ball from a tree. Just out of play was a paved street, on the other side of which were the college buildings. A few windows almost got taken out.

The right field fence was a wooden farm style fence, with a yard directly abutting it. At one point during the game, some adults with little kids came out of the gate, and walked directly through the outfield, and play had to be stopped, while the umpire yelled "Get off the field!" at them, and they acted like they couldn't hear, and made their casual way along.

***

We arrived at the baseball field. It was Mansfield Stadium.

Week 11 Prompt III

A small flock of little brown birds, converged and diverged, in the air and on the floor, converged and diverged, through the long terminal of the airport.




"The airplane was hit just after takeoff by birds, a large flock. Fortunately, no one was injured."


"The cruise ship sank, spilling it's passengers into the water. Over 120 Americans were on board, and several Americans are still missing."

Week 11 Prompt II

Tools:

I have the habit of losing things. But not just losing them. A particular way of losing them.

I say to myself "Oh, I won't remember that I put that here, I'll just move it somewhere else where I will remember it."

And then I remember it being where I moved it from, but not where I moved it to.

I often do this with tools. There was a swiss army knife from my grandfather sitting on the table for a while, then I said "I'll forget it's here." So I moved it elsewhere.

Where that elsewhere is I am yet to find, but I am sure I shall locate it sometime.

By the way, I think that I'm going to forget where my blog is on the internet, I think I'll move it to somewhere I will remember it...

Week 11 Prompt I

Uncle Henry's Ad-  Build it and they will come. One backstop for baseball. Has all the fence, post, fittings for a large backstop. Was used about four years. Also have some side line fence for an additional price. $1000 cash.

Backstops are an integral part of baseball. If there were no backstop, then there would have to be ten players on the field, one extra one to back up the catcher. Because any passed ball or wild pitch would never stop. 

A backstop is more important than any other fence on the field. I have experienced fields with no outfield fence, no out of play fence along the side, just a backstop. A good backstop will prevent many foul balls from escaping the field. Which is useful if you are playing on a field with trees or buildings directly behind the backstop.

But all backstops should stop passed balls. There was one field I played on with a backstop with wood on the bottom. I would run on the passed ball, and the ball would either bounce off the wood all the way back to the pitcher, or it would go underneath and out of play.

As a baserunner I prefer one farther back, to give more time to the baserunner. Nothing like going from first to third on a passed ball.

I enjoy backstops very much, but $1000 used? No thanks.